Intercultural Pragmatics: Integrating Diverse Pragmatic Styles in Multicultural Academic Discourse

Globalization, migration and the mingling of cultures in one community has made this
world highly multicultural. This interconnectedness brings the need to interact and
have different relationships with people from various cultures which poses challenges
for people who would cross the borders of the countries altogether with their cultural
boundaries. While diversity brings rich academic environment it also includes
contemporary challenges, particularly in terms of pragmatic competence. This paper’s
aim is to examine how language is used in academic contexts preserving divergent
pragmatic styles for politeness, directness, argumentation and critical engagement in
academic communication. A qualitative analysis of students’ e-mails and their
communication with professors is used to identify key points of intercultural pragmatic
friction because different cultures have different norms which are essential to be taught
in terms of concrete strategies for pragmatic norms and intercultural communication.
Finally, the study concludes that teaching pragmatic norms explicitly can help students
navigate academic discourse more effectively by fostering mutual respect for diverse
communicative styles without demanding cultural assimilation.
Keywords: Intercultural communication, Pragmatics, Pragmatic Styles, Culture